SAVANNAH, GA: A former commercial loan officer at a Chatham County bank has been sentenced to prison after admitting to obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent commercial loans using another person’s identity without their consent .

Jason McMillan46, of Savannah, was sentenced to 10 months in jail and ordered to pay $112,430 in restitution after pleading guilty to bank fraud, said David H. Estes, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. also ordered McMillan to serve three years of probation and perform 40 hours of community service after his prison sentence ended. There is no parole in the federal system.

“Jason McMillan used his insider access to the bank that employed him to obtain money that fueled his lifestyle,” US Attorney Estes said. “In addition to being held accountable, as part of his plea deal, McMillan agrees to never again work in the industry whose trust and clients he betrayed.”

McMillan admitted that from July 2009 to April 2019, he knowingly used another person’s identity without their consent to obtain business loans in the amount of $187,000, $160,000, $157,000 and $250,000. $ from a Chatham County bank where he worked as a commercial loan officer. McMillan also admitted to obtaining these loans under the false pretense that the loans would be used to obtain industrial agricultural equipment. McMillan admitted knowingly using approximately $200,271 of those funds for his personal use. The bank discovered the fraud during an internal investigation.

“McMillan’s conviction reinforces the importance of protecting people’s personal identifiers,” said Steven Baisel, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service. “We will continue to pursue these criminals and hold them accountable.”

The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service and prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Lee and Asset Forfeiture Unit Section Chief Xavier A Cunningham.